| Milk producers are invited to form a holding company There is little milk in Russia. At least domestic cows are underperforming. The shortage is made up by importing milk powder, which does not make Russian producers and processors very happy. Domestic dairy farmers, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Russian Union of Dairy Industry Enterprises, recently discussed the problems and prospects of the industry at a research and production meeting dedicated to the milk powder market.
“It doesn’t matter who invests money in the industry, the main thing is that it works,” said First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Anatoly Mikhalev. He told the dairy farmers that it is necessary to integrate the industry, “to create a single holding company, which will be headed by a leader, that is, in fact, move to a workshop system.”
Such ideas are demonstrated not only by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, but also by local agricultural workers. So, just the other day, during the visit of a government delegation to the Kaliningrad region, local authorities, in order to support regional dairy farming, proposed to the federal authorities to create a regional food fund, where to transfer 100 million rubles. from the budget, “to recycle this amount three times a year and then invest 300 million rubles in agriculture.” This proposal was warmly supported by the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Georgy Gulyuk, although he was suspended by the Minister of Economic Development German Gref: “You don’t know how to manage your own money.” Mr. Gulyuk could not say anything about the funds at the disposal of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the topic was closed.
But thoughts about supporting dairy farmers at the expense of other people’s money are circulating in the relevant ministry. The main problem in the industry, Mr. Mikhalev believes, is underutilization of production capacity. In the Leningrad region, for example, the cost of a liter of milk is 1.5 rubles, and the profitability of production reaches 400%. At the same time, according to the deputy minister, “the lines are idle and the capacities are not used.”
The peak of milk production in Russia occurred in 1990. Since then, processing volumes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, have decreased on average by more than 2 times. So, if in 1990 833 thousand tons of butter were produced in Russia, then in 2000 - only 265.2 thousand tons. Currently, production capacity is used at a maximum of 25%.
For normal provision of the Russian population, it is necessary to produce 50-55 million tons of milk per year. With the existing livestock, this means that one cow should produce 4-4.5 thousand kg, but achieving such a level is almost impossible. Consequently, it will be necessary to increase the genetic potential and increase the number of livestock to 16-16.5 million heads. At the same time, there is not enough feed: domestic cows receive 3-4 times less than necessary.
Deputy Head of the Department of Food and Processing Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture Valery Daykov said that private farms are the only producer that maintains a stable volume of milk production. Production there for several years has remained at 16 million tons per year - this is almost 50% of all milk produced, while in 1990 it was only 23%. However, according to Mr. Daykov, if a functioning system for purchasing milk from private owners is not created today, then production volumes there will decline and may come to naught in just a few years.
According to forecasts, by 2006 milk production should return to 1995 levels and amount to 37 million tons. However, the macroeconomic indicators of the industry remain quite poor, and the growth that began in 2000 (6.5%) will most likely not be sustained. Anfisa VORONINA |
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